The philosopher Petr Rezek received the Schald prize

Prague - Today, the F. X. Šalda Award for outstanding achievement in the field of artistic criticism was awarded to philosopher, aesthetician, and art theorist Petr Rezek. The jury, composed of experts from various artistic fields, selected him from four nominees, including the recently deceased playwright Josef Topol. Rezek was honored for his book "Slipping Away or Death" and with regard to his lifelong work.
    Petr Rezek focuses on phenomenological psychology, the phenomenology of art, and ancient philosophy in his work. Since 2004, his collected works have been published by the Ztichlá klika publishing house, which also published the awarded book. In 2010, he received the Tom Stoppard Award for the book Architectonics and Proto-architecture. He currently teaches the philosophy of art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague.
    The awarded book "Slipping Away or Death" presents a distinctive theory of the pedestal, as suggested by its subtitle "to the theory of the pedestal"; it is based on the work of sculptor Alberto Giacometti. The proposed theory of the pedestal includes both a critique of visual communication and offers an interpretation of virtual reality as a realm of death, all of which the author supports through an analysis of specific examples.
    The F. X. Šalda Society renewed its activities in 1990. The Šalda Award was presented from 1995 to 1998, and after a few years' hiatus, it has been awarded again since 2002. Its laureates have included Milan Jungmann, Vladimír Just, Jiří Cieslar, Lubomír Dorůžka, Karel Kraus, Karel Thein, Jindřich Černý, and Věra Linhartová. Last year, the award was given to art historian Martina Pachmanová for the book "The Birth of the Artist from Lemonade Foam," which deals with gender contexts in Czech modern theory and artistic criticism.
    This year's nominees included Karel Císař with the publication "Alphabet of Things: Notes on Modern and Contemporary Art"; Josef Topol was nominated for his book "What the Poet Knows," a collection of his occasional texts, and also considering his lifelong work. The nominations were complemented by Josef Vojvodík and Marie Langerová for their publication "Pathos in Czech Art, Poetry, and Artistic-Aesthetic Thinking of the 1940s."